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Hovenweep National Monument
by
O. Ned Eddins

  Mountains of Stone  The Winds of Change

Little Ruins Canyon     Holly Ruins    Cutthroat Ruin      Cajon Ruins

Hovenweep National Monument is located in the Four Corners area of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Hovenweep National Monument straddles the Utah-Colorado border on Cajon Mesa. Six Anasazi villages encompass the 785 acre Hovenweep National Monument. The Hovenweep villages are: Square Tower, Holly, Hackberry, Horseshoe, Cutthroat Castle, and Cajon.

                                                     Delorme Topo Map

A Mormon expedition into the four corners area led by W. D. Huntington reported the abandoned Indian towers on Cajon Mesa in 1854. The Hovenweep towers were discovered more than thirty years before Wetherill and Mason saw the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde. The term Hovenweep was first used by an early western photographer William Henry Jackson in 1874. Hovenweep is a Ute Indian word meaning "Deserted Valley".  Hovenweep was set aside as a National Monument in 1923.

Cajon Mesa consists of intermittent streams draining deep-cut canyons. When flowing with water, the streams drain into Yellowjacket and McElmo creeks and then into the San Juan River. By the early 1200s, small isolated farming groups of Anasazi living on Cajon Mesa moved near the canyon rim springs. Despite the harsh environment, the Hovenweep people foraged for edible plant, hunted animals, and in small plots of moist soil raised the Three Sisters…beans, squash, and corn. The visible towers at present-day Hovenweep were constructed between 1230 and 1277.

Hovenweep farmers built check dams to hold back the runoff water carrying  fine top soil off the bedrock. Check dams and catch basins provided water for hand irrigating crops in small isolated areas. Terraced gardens were placed along the canyon walls. Watered by the runoff from the slick rock areas, sheltered from the wind, and with added warmth from the surrounding rock surfaces, the terraced garden areas yielded the earliest spring crops.The Little Canyon Rim trail guide suggests one to two acres were required to grow enough food to support one person for a year. In addition to this,  surplus food must be stored against bad crop-growing years. 

                                      Little Ruin Canyon - Hovenweep Brochure

  
                                                            Stronghold House    

Stronghold House was built with two distinct features...Stronghold House and Stronghold Tower. Stronghold Tower was built over a crevice in the cliff. A log bridged the crevice and supported part of the tower. When the log rotted away, most of the tower collapsed in to the canyon.

 
                                                               Twin Towers
The Twin Towers were built on bedrock with the two towers almost touching. One of the towers is oval, the other is horseshoe shaped. The two towers contained sixteen rooms. The Twin Towers of Hovenweep are among the finest constructed rock towers in the Southwest.

 
                                                              Tower Point

Tower Point is located where Little Ruin Canyon splits into two canyons. The tower had a good view up and down both canyons.

 
                                                              Boulder House

Near the head of Little Ruin Canyon is Square Tower with Hovenweep Castle behind it. Square and circular towers, D-shaped dwellings and some kivas were built in this area. In Hovenweep Castle is a log with a tree ring dated at 1277. Square Tower is located near a good spring.

 
                                         Square Tower and Hovenweep Castle

 
                                                       Hovenweep Castle

Holly Ruins

There is an eight mile round-trip hiking trail from Square Tower campground to the Holly Ruins. There is also a road to the Holly ruins...the last couple of miles is on a dirt road. Whatever effort it takes, the Holly Ruins are worth a visit.

 
                                                            Holly Canyon

 
                                                             Holly Sliding House

 
                                                               Holly House

 
                                                                   Holly Tower

 
                                                          Holly Rock Tower

Cutthroat Ruins

Ten miles east of the Hovenweep Visitor Center is the turnoff for the Painted Hand Tower. The Cuthroat Group trail head is a couple of miles down this road with a .8 mile easy hike.

                                                         Cutthroat Group

                                                               Cutthroat Tower

                                                       Cutthroat Castle

A kiva was a ceremonial area that connected its people with other worlds. Kivas were usually built below ground with an entrance to the underworld. According to archeologists, a unique feature of the Cutthroat Castle is an above-ground kiva on top a boulder. The underground entrance, or Sipapu, is a slit in the boulder (center of picture). Another unusual feature is a square room adjoining the circular kiva.

Cajon Ruins

The Cajon Ruins are west of the visitor center on the Navajo Reservation. Get good directions from the visitor center before trying to drive to these ruins...there are many crisscrossing dirt roads.

Boulders were used in the wall construction at the Cajon site. The round tower built around the boulders with the small opening at the bottom could have been used for food storage.

                                                  Cajon Ruins - James Q. Jacobs

The Anasazi of Hovenweep did not build Great Kivas. Some archeologists speculate instead of Great Kivas, the Hovenweep Anasazi built ceremonial towers. Hovenweep Towers were built on large boulders, on the canyon rims, and others on the canyon floor. Despite many theories advanced by archeologist, the actual use of the Hovenweep towers is unknown.

Why and how the people built these structures in such an inhospitable land and then abandon them within less than a hundred years remains a mystery. Why will never be known for certainty, but we are still privileged to see the how part. The intriguing question is how did these people...highest estimate is twenty-five hundred...live in such a harsh environment and still manage to build all of these structures in less than a hundred years? Tree ring dating established the approximate date of Hovenweep Castle, but there is no evidence as to when the stone work started for the simple houses like Boulder House and Sliding Rock House at Holly. An outstanding feature at Hovenweep is the masonry work. The Hovenweep rock work is every bit as good as is done today, and these people did it with no metal tools. 

 
                                                           Wall at Horseshoe Site

 By the start of the 14th century, the Anasazi of Hovenweep, along with the Mesa Verde and the Kayenta Anasazi, migrated south to join the Pueblo people of the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico and the Hopi and Zuni villages in Arizona.

Minimal archeological work and little Park Ranger scrutiny makes Hovenweep the most interesting of the Anasazi dwelling sites. I have been to Holly on three separate occasions, and have never seen anyone else there. Ancient Indian structures and petroglyphs are treated with reverence by Native Americans and should be by the visitor. The freedom to observe these spectacular structures does not give anyone the right to climb on, touch, damage, or be disrespectful in any way to these historical treasures.

The Hovenweep Monument  article was written by O. Ned Eddins of Afton, Wyoming. Permission is given for material from this site to be used for school research papers.

References and Links are below the mountain man picture.